Hearing for Beale Street nightclub reset to Friday

Club Crave owner Randy William (left) and 380 Beale building owner George Miller joke with each other outside the courtroom following a public nuisance hearing that was reset to Friday.

General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Larry Potter addresses Club Crave owner Randy William during a public nuisance hearing that was reset to Friday.

The Commercial Appeal

A public nuisance hearing Wednesday on the future of Club Crave on Beale Street was reset for Friday when the judge and attorneys will pick a trial date.

On Christmas Eve a shooting at the club left one man dead and two others injured. The club, which has had numerous complaints of illegal activity since it opened in August 2011, was closed last Thursday by a temporary injunction.

State prosecutors and city attorneys are seeking to close it permanently.

Attorneys for George Miller, who is identified on the nuisance petition as the owner of the building at 380 Beale, are seeking to have the injunction dissolved and the petition dismissed.

Miller's attorneys say the defendants were not given notice before the temporary injunction was granted. They also say Miller has done nothing to create a nuisance and that areas outside the club would not be a problem if given adequate police protection.

In a brief hearing Wednesday, General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Larry Potter reset the case to Friday afternoon to give club owner Randy Williams time to make arrangements with his attorney.

In a petition filed last week, city and state attorneys called the club "a clear danger to this community, as a place where violence, shootings and other unlawful behavior has become commonplace."

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton said the city would file a condemnation petition to demolish the building, noting that previous tenants at the site, such as the Plush Club, also have drawn violent, unruly crowds.

Since 1992, at least 21 people have been shot in or around the club.

Not everyone craves the condemnation and demolishing of the building at Beale and Fourth Street, just outside the official boundaries of the Beale Street Historic District.

Erskine Gillespie, a former candidate for the District 7 City Council seat, has started an online petition to save the building and convert it into a movie theater featuring local and independent films. So far, the petition has gained 64 signatures.

"We do not need another vacant lot in this city," Erskine says in the online petition. "This building was originally a movie theatre, and was a positive place for all to attend."

"We no longer have a movie facility in the downtown area, so why not seek the support to turn this building back into a theatre – one that will be a special movie theater," says the petition. "We are asking that this suggestion is given consideration, as a viable alternate use for a building that was once the Muhammad Ali Theatre, and the east gateway to Beale Street!"